NAURU. THE RICHEST ISLAND IN THE SOUTH SEAS
Photograph trom Mrs. Rosamond I)odson Khone
A PHOSPHATE TRAMWAY
This electric tram line is used to haul phosphate to the piers, where it is shot into the
surf-boats to be carried to the cargo vessel. In Australia, where some 200,00o tons of this
fertilizer are used each year, phosphate has doubled the wheat crop.
non, which stands before the house of the
British administrator.
THE ISLANDERS' REVENGE
In the fifties, a whaling ship out of
New Bedford, Massachusetts, called at
the island, and the natives paddled out in
their outrigger canoes and swarmed over
the decks, examining everything with
lively curiosity. They especially admired
a small cannon, whose polished brass
glittered in the tropic sunshine, and they
offered to buy it, paying for it with coco
nuts. A price was agreed upon. They
went ashore and returned with the re
quired number, but the captain raised the
price, asking double the number.
The natives again went ashore and
brought back the stipulated number; the
captain again raised the price. It was
now late in the day and the natives said
they would bring the remainder in the
morning. They beached their canoes and
retired to their huts, while the crew,
drinking the delicious coconut milk and
feasting on the delicate meat, no doubt
felicitated themselves, as the ship drifted
about waiting for the dawn, on their
cleverness
in outwitting the simple
savages.
In the night the natives went out in
force, surprised and overcame the offi
cers and crew, and killed every man save
one sailor who secreted himself. They
set fire to the ship and took the cannon :
they took nothing else!
Other white influences were traders
who took native wives, and the tradi
tional "beach-combers"-runaway sail
ors, sometimes escaped convicts, and
white men "gone native," who lived in
native huts upon native food.
There were also more benign influ
ences.
French Catholic missions and
English and American Protestant ones
were established. The island became
nominally Christian, but without aban
doning the combats between the tribes.
The Nauruans have never been canni
bals, but they had the reputation of be
ing savage warriors.
A traveler from
New Zealand-not Macaulay's New Zea-
563